Heroes Retrospective

Heroes had a promising premise, strong pilot, and talented (albeit huge) cast. Where did it go wrong? Having not seen the later seasons, I only have the first to hypothesize by. My theory assumes the second through fourth seasons build on tone/direction of the first.

I think, simply, that Heroes isn't as grand or intelligent as it thinks it is.

Despite clever marketing ("Save the cheerleader, Save the world" plastered on flyers and merch everywhere was effective; tie-in comics and extensive online content contributed to a richer experience) and good acting (Masi Oka!) and stylish art direction and whatever else made it a success at first failed in the end, when the audience realized in their own time that the writing was thin. In a year that boasted Lost, among others, Heroes never quite made the grade. Mohinder babbled on and on through monologues, the writing a weak attempt to seem smart, but its core was never anything of substance.

Where the show excelled, I think, was in its creativity and special effects. I could never tire of seeing Claire snap her ribs back into place, or watching Hiro stop time (how do they do that? It's awesome!). I loved the episode that gave us a peek five years into the future, a dystopia of sorts, that would occur if Hiro didn't kill Sylar. I loved the episode titles that mimicked comic book typesetting. Give me a couple of explosions or interesting uses of a power, and I'm satisfied -- I'd obviously take a coherent, clever plot over any of it, but special effects are sure an effective distraction. Unfortunately, the season finale, "How to Stop an Exploding Man" didn't offer us any of that. We expected an epic showdown that would showcase powers and expel false theories (is it Peter, Ted, or Sylar that explodes?) and overall, surprise us. What we got was an uncharacteristically weak Sylar and a bit of flying. The definition of an anticlimax.

To recap, I'm going to make a couple of lists:

Things I Like About Heroes

• Art direction -- comic book theme
• Actors/acting -- I even like the large cast. I like that most of the characters are expendable, so deaths can happen
• Special effects -- Ted blowing up the Bennett house, Claire healing herself, Sylar doing anything, Hiro stopping time
• Hiro and Ando's relationship
• Large-scaleness of it -- India, New York, Las Vegas, LA...
• Claude

Things I Don't Like About Heroes

• Pacing -- first half of season 1 was slow, second half moved a bit better
• Lame writing most of the time
• Ali Larter's character and her power
• Peter Whiny Petrelli
• Uninteresting/useless characters like Simone or Parkman's FBI partner
• Sometimes there is not enough Claude